Inflated file size in Visio 2002 SP-2?

[Dan - Aquilent]

Yesterday I installed Service Pack 2 for Visio 2002 Professional. I noticed that when I opened files previously created with SP-1, and re-saved them under a different file name, the file size was substantially larger, even without making any changes to the file. For example, a 2.4MB file in SP-1 is now a 12.5MB file

Has anyone else noticed this problem? Is Microsoft working on a fix for this

Thanks
-- Da
Sr Information Architec
Aquilent www.aquilent.com

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Yikes! That does not sound good. Do you have the ability to reopen and save
the bloated file again on a machine with SP1? Also does the file shrink
back down on SP2 if you go into File > Properties and turn off the drawing
thumbnail?

--
Mark Nelson
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Yesterday I installed Service Pack 2 for Visio 2002 Professional. I

noticed that when I opened files previously created with SP-1, and re-saved
them under a different file name, the file size was substantially larger,
even without making any changes to the file. For example, a 2.4MB file in
SP-1 is now a 12.5MB file.

 

[Trev]

Hi Mark

I tried your suggestion of turning off the Preview and that only changes the file size by an amount I would expect (about 1KB). I'll run a test with an SP1 copy on my crash&burn system and let you know the results. Being able to save the bloated Visio file from Visio 2003 into Visio 2002 format and have it return to the original size makes me question Visio 2002 SP2

Regards

Trev

 

[Trev]

Hi again Mark

I have completed my testing and the following is the results

Files used for testing
1.) Original 1.910MB Template fil
2.) Immediate Save-As of above original from Visio 2002 Pro SP2 (10.0.5110): Bloated 7.509MB Template fil

Testing Plan: Open the above files and immediately save-as to a new file name with SR-1. Install SP2. Open the above files and immediately save-as to a new file name with SP2

TESTING PHASE
--------------------
Installed Visio Professional 2002 SR-1 (10.0.2514) - No additional updates adde

Open Original Templete - immediate Save-as - Size changes
1.910MB Original --> 1.945MB Save-as - - - Acceptable chang

Open Bloated Template - immediate Save-as - Size changes
7.509MB Bloated --> 1.948MB Save-as - - - SR-1 returned the bloated file back to the original siz

TESTING PHASE
--------------------

Update SR-1 copy of Visio to SP2. Installed SP2 to bring Visio to (10.0.5110

Open Original Templete - immediate Save-as - Size changes
1.910MB Original --> 7.435MB Save-as - - - unacceptable - Bloated resul

Open Bloated Template - immediate Save-as - Size changes
7.509MB Bloated --> 7.434MB Save-as - - - no significant chang

==================

Judging by these results using identical files and the only variance being the fresh SR-1 install and then an SP2 update, one of the recent updates implemented in the SP2 package is causing file size corruption. The resulting size increase appears to be in the range of 3.5 to 4 times the original size from the various tests I've done with many different files. This is a very significant problem that Microsoft needs to look into

Regards

Trev

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Feel free to e-mail me your files, zipped if possible. Just remove 'online'
from my address.

If you want to continue diagnosis yourself, you would start deleting things
in the original file to see if you can get to a point where the bloat no
longer occurs.

--
Mark Nelson
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi again Mark,

I have completed my testing and the following is the results:

Files used for testing:
1.) Original 1.910MB Template file
2.) Immediate Save-As of above original from Visio 2002 Pro SP2

(10.0.5110): Bloated 7.509MB Template file

Testing Plan: Open the above files and immediately save-as to a new file

name with SR-1. Install SP2. Open the above files and immediately save-as
to a new file name with SP2.

TESTING PHASE 1
---------------------
Installed Visio Professional 2002 SR-1 (10.0.2514) - No additional updates added

Open Original Templete - immediate Save-as - Size changes:
1.910MB Original --> 1.945MB Save-as - - - Acceptable change

Open Bloated Template - immediate Save-as - Size changes:
7.509MB Bloated --> 1.948MB Save-as - - - SR-1 returned the bloated file back to the original size

TESTING PHASE 2
---------------------

Update SR-1 copy of Visio to SP2. Installed SP2 to bring Visio to (10.0.5110)

Open Original Templete - immediate Save-as - Size changes:
1.910MB Original --> 7.435MB Save-as - - - unacceptable - Bloated result

Open Bloated Template - immediate Save-as - Size changes:
7.509MB Bloated --> 7.434MB Save-as - - - no significant change

===================

Judging by these results using identical files and the only variance being

the fresh SR-1 install and then an SP2 update, one of the recent updates
implemented in the SP2 package is causing file size corruption. The
resulting size increase appears to be in the range of 3.5 to 4 times the
original size from the various tests I've done with many different files.
This is a very significant problem that Microsoft needs to look into.

 

[Trev]

Hi Mark

I will be sending you the files shortly after I create this post. I conducted a second little experiment to see what would happen. I do not see it being any of the shapes in my templates as nothing in that file changed so I decided to use a standard Microsoft template and stencil included with Visio 2002 Pro.

Test Setup

System 1 running Visio 2002 Pro SR-
System 2 running Visio 2002 Pro SP

Start Visio - click "Visio Network Equipment Sampler" Template to star

Drag in the top 6 masters (5 3Com shapes and the Alcatel shape

Immediately Save file on both systems
System 1: 163,840 byte
System 2: 666,112 byte

As I mentioned - this is a 4X increase in file size

Now to confirm this is an SP2 problem, opened the large file that was saved from System 2 and immediately saved it to a new name on System 1 running SR-1: 164,352 byte

To further confirm this as being an SP2 problem

Installed SP2 on System 1
Start Visio - click "Visio Network Equipment Sampler" Template to star
Drag in the top 6 masters (5 3Com shapes and the Alcatel shape
Save file on System 1: 662,016 byte

I think the results speak for themselves

Regards

Trev

 

[scot]

I have read this entire thread and have encountered the exact same problem with one exception: I disabled the Preview(File/Properties...) and resaved the document in sp1, then opened the document in sp2 and the file size increased only 15k (as opposed to increasing approx 400%!!!!! with the preview enabled ). These large files caused a big problem when trying to open, copy or print these files, especially over a network, and even before they are bloated after resaving them. I have noticed that the file opens much quicker with sp1. When openining with sp2 it not only opens the files but also bloats it by 400%, which causes it to load much slower. Continuous lockups of Visio and Windows explorer, until I was able to determine the problem, and some time consuming work arounds and fixes now. I noticed that on a computer with sp2, when clicking on a large Visio file 5 meg or more (on a server) that was created with sp1 and has the preview enabled (first page) Explorer locks up, seems to be having problems with the preview. I have to use a non-Microsoft program to copy the files to my local drive to open them. This is a real problem. What is Microsoft's solution?????????????

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Microsoft is working on a fix but has not set a release date yet.

--
Mark Nelson
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

I have read this entire thread and have encountered the exact same problem

with one exception: I disabled the Preview(File/Properties...) and resaved
the document in sp1, then opened the document in sp2 and the file size
increased only 15k (as opposed to increasing approx 400%!!!!! with the
preview enabled ). These large files caused a big problem when trying to
open, copy or print these files, especially over a network, and even before
they are bloated after resaving them. I have noticed that the file opens
much quicker with sp1. When openining with sp2 it not only opens the files
but also bloats it by 400%, which causes it to load much slower. Continuous
lockups of Visio and Windows explorer, until I was able to determine the
problem, and some time consuming work arounds and fixes now. I noticed that
on a computer with sp2, when clicking on a large Visio file 5 meg or more
(on a server) that was created with sp1 and has the preview enabled (first
page) Explorer locks up, seems to be having problems with the preview. I
have to use a non-Microsoft program to copy the files to my local drive to
open them. This is a real problem. What is Microsoft's solution?????????????Template file when opened and immediately save-as'd into a new file becomes
7.5MB. When I take the bloated file, open in Visio 2003 and save-as back to
Visio 2002, it returns to 1.7MB in size. I have not tried it with an SP1
Visio 2002 but the only change I've done recently on the copy of Visio or my
files is to run Office Update.

 

[Gary]

I also am having trouble with inflated file sizes running Visio 2002 SP-2. I
have noticed when I add a shaded shadow to a number of shapes, rather than
solid black, the Visio file triples in size. Plus, when I print to Acrobat
Distiller, the resultant PDF file is 10 times larger than with solid black
shadows.

Will the proposed fix address this, as well?

Gary

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

You should turn of the preview picture (File > Properties) to see if that
solves your file size issue. If it does, it is likely the problem mentioned
below. I do not have any news about when a fix will be available
unfortunately.

--
Mark Nelson
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Gary]

Thank you, Mark. Turning off the preview certainly helps with the size of the
Visio file, but doesn't help me when I output to PDF. Maybe mine is a problem
with Distiller.

I have 15 shapes and some text in a graphic. When all the shapes have a
solid black shadow and preview is on, the Visio file size is 2,179KB. With
the preview off, the Visio file size is only 361KB. In both cases, when I
output to PDF, I get a 121KB file.

When I change 10 of the shapes to a black shadow with 80% transparency, the
Visio file is 2,196KB with preview on and 361KB with preview off. In both of
these cases, when I output to PDF, I get a 1,304KB file. This is over 10
times bigger than with solid black shadows and much larger than what I would
expect for PDF.

If I use a solid gray color for the shadow, I get a much smaller PDF file
(122KB), but not the desired transparency effect.

Is this strictly a Distiller issue, or is there some sort of work-around in
Visio?

Gary

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

I'm not familiar with the Adobe product. It sounds like the typical size
increase when you try to describe the image as a raster image rather than a
vector image.

--
Mark Nelson
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.